OKLAHOMA CITY – Having pushed themselves into a corner on this roadtrip, the 76ers needed a pair of wins against division-leading teams to break even.

Wasn’t meant to happen. Not with the way Oklahoma City defends its home floor. And not with the way the Sixers allowed the Thunder to dominate in the third quarter, either.

The Sixers, who kept things nearly level through two quarters Friday night, fell apart after halftime as Oklahoma City thumped the visitors, 109-85, at Chesapeake Energy Arena.

The Thunder, who got 27 points from Russell Westbrook and 26 from Kevin Durant, pulled away with a ridiculous stretch to start the third quarter, during which they went 7-for-7 from the floor in the first seven minutes. They mounted a double-digit lead and never looked back.

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When the Sixers (15-19) called a timeout with 7:33 to go in the game, the Thunder had made 17 of 25 second-half shots. Mercifully, the Sixers’ season-long, eight-game roadtrip closes tonight at San Antonio.

Jrue Holiday tried to stop the bleeding, knocking down a pair of shots and handing out three assists in the same span, but the Sixers weren’t clicking collectively. That was a pretty tall task for Holiday, considering he was suffering from a minor right groin strain that slowed him at the start.

Holiday gave the Sixers 15 points and nine assists, while Nick Young – the only Sixer to step to the free-throw line – had 21 points in 28 minutes off the bench.

Try as they might, the Sixers had a tough time finding a defensive matchup against Durant. Go figure. In the first quarter alone, they went to Jason Richardson, Evan Turner and Thad Young in a bid to slow down Durant, who – at times – had his way offensively.

Defense, which has been working in the Sixers’ favor lately, kept the game within reach after one quarter. And they needed their defense, too, after committing six first-quarter turnovers.

Still, in a one-point game that was sloppy on both sides, Sixers coach Doug Collins rolled the dice. He gambled that his guys could keep the game tight with Holiday off the floor for nearly as long as the Thunder had shelved their point guard, Russell Westbrook.

And, for the most part, Collins was rewarded for his risk. By the time Holiday came off the bench in the second quarter, more than five-and-a-half minutes had gone by and the Sixers trailed only 32-30.

Even with Holiday out there, it was the guy the Sixers tasked with handling the ball sans Holiday who provided a lift. Nick Young canned a pair of 3-pointers in the final five minutes of the second quarter to surge to 13 points by halftime.

Thad Young’s putback with less than a minute to go in the half helped the Sixers match their largest lead to that point, at 40-38. But Oklahoma City assembled an 8-2 run to end the half with a 46-42 advantage.

The Thunder, who lead the league in free-throw attempts, needed every last one of them to stake their lead at intermission. They were 12-for-15 from the line, while the Sixers’ only trips to the stripe were courtesy Nick Young.

Whatever was in the Thunder’s halftime water cooler, they chugged plenty of it.

Oklahoma City made its first seven attempts from the floor. Some of them seemed improbable, like Thabo Sefolosha and Durant knocking down 23-footers within 29 seconds of one another, and others seemed right on cue, with Westbrook driving for fastbreak buckets.

The Thunder closed out the third quarter having shot 11-for-13 from the field, an unreal total even for the league’s highest-scoring team. And with that OKC took a 78-66 lead into the fourth quarter.

If not for Holiday’s solid third quarter, though, the Sixers’ deficit would’ve been far less manageable. Holiday didn’t miss on any of his four shot attempts and dished out four assists along the way to keep the Sixers’ deficit from getting out of hand.

Well, temporarily at least.

OKC’s Kevin Martin knocked down a 3-pointer to open the fourth quarter, and it was lights-out from there. The flood gates had been opened and the Sixers couldn’t keep the Thunder from pouring in the points.